Blog

Rwanda

Greetings from Kigali! We’ve been in Rwanda for the past four days and are having an amazing time. Shortly after getting settled into our hostel here in Kigali, we got lunch as a group and made our way to the Hotel des Mille Collines (where Hotel Rwanda was based). While there, Mia (as this week’s NatGeo) led us in an awesome discussion about the Rwandan Genocide. She was able to… Read More

Creating Chocolate, From Beginning to End

¨Watching Willy Wonka as a little girl and giggling at the umpalampas never prepared me for the real cacao, the ashy skins and haunted history of this scared plant. In an open-air jungle kitchen, we gripped sticky blocks of cane sugar and rushed them back and forth over a cheese grater, creating mini mountains of molten, oozy sugar. We ground coconuts upon a hand grater on the counter, a simple Read More

This week in India: does Buddha share his tea?

Hey USA This week began with a bittersweet ending in Kolkata. The Mother Teresa home is a quiet oasis in the middle of a bustling city. We’d go through a tight alley to reach the front door, admiring the calm blue hue of the outside walls accented with a dusty orange in the windows, metal gates shield every window with varying patters on a tetris-esque theme. At the door we… Read More
Hey everyone, my name is Mira and I am the Bilbo Blogging’s for this past week. I’d like to apologize in advance for only doing one post; sadly the wifi ability on the farm was limited. Otherwise I would have done a post every day. Wow, I can’t believe that we have only been abroad for 4 weeks! It feels like we’ve been gone for soo much longer. But enough… Read More

Lahu nation

Our adventure continues. We departed from our friends at the Mirror Art Foundation and embarked on our long and treacherous journey through the dense, overgrown jungle until we reached our destination, the Lahu hill tribe. We were fortunate to have such perfect weather for the six hours of trekking; a majority of our time in the village was rainy and overcast. Much of our time was spent inside by the… Read More

A Glorious Juxtapostition

Namaste, everyone! It’s Walker here sending love and well wishes on behalf of the entire Shiva group! I’m so thankful that I found an Internet cafe tucked above the bustling chaos of Amritsar before we head off this afternoon to catch our night train to Agra (aka home of the Taj Mahal!). This past week has been an absolutely beautiful whirlwind. After leaving Deer Park Institute on October 13th, we… Read More

PHOTOS in yo face

Hey loves! We are in Gangtok and it’s beautiful here. We just passed the one-month mark so it seems like a good time to post some photos. The internet is crazy slow. For a moment I thought I would be stuck with this single photo of us at the airport. Rickshaws in Delhi! We didn’t know where we were going and then we ended up shopping for two hours. It… Read More

Nudist Colony

Hola from Guatemala City! We arrived tired and safe to the G-22 organization yesterday afternoon. They greeted us with delicious food and a lovely community-centered space to live in. Our beds are all next to each other and they’re also in our dining room! This room has seen many card fights and games and heard lots of laughs and songs and sleep-talk conversations. We’ve learned so much about G-22 just… Read More

Canoe Trekking in Kabale

Hello everyone, Becky here! The past few days have been full of incredible sites and delicious food. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll post a few. We finished our time at SNEC (you’ll hear all about that from Duncan) and headed back to Kabale for a night. Then our incredible trekking guide Martin showed us Lake Bunyoni for a few days. The first day we set out… Read More

Home Stays and Ohana Amani

Kamwene friends and family! We are back in Iringa town and staying at a very nice hotel. Last week we arrived with open hearts and minds to Ohana Amani’s beautiful home and organic garden. We had a fantastically fun time hanging out with the sisters Curry and Chevy, and their friends Shannon, Hannah, and Anna-Sophia. They are some powerful ladies who inspired all of us. We had a glamorous camp… Read More

Our Week in Kampala and Volunteering with Edirisa U.K. at SNEC (Kitanga Primary School)

Hello There, Duncan here! So we just had an awesome week starting in Kampala and ending in Kabale. In Kampala the first night back from Rhino Fund Uganda, we saw a pretty cool open mic drumming/concert night at the National Theater. The next day Becca and Becky got some pretty sick looking dreadlocks, Fred, Lilly, Mia, Natalie, and myself went touring around the local market and visited the National Mosque.… Read More

I’m moving to Auckland.

Heeeeyy, it’s Amy checking in. As I’m sure all of you know, we have made our way from Fiji to New Zealand and can I just say how obsessed I am with this country. We started our trip in the wondrous city of Auckland. It’s beautiful and wonderful and I’m moving here once the trip is over. Sorry mom. Gracie and I spent most of the time shopping, it was… Read More

Fry Bread, Hail Storms, and the River

Our brains do not cook as she planned. (It’s really just fry bread)   Roberto cleans out the corn with the wind. Roberto asks us to help take down an old clay oven. Tom goes in for the devastating strike. Burning juniper branches to create ash for adding to corn soup to make it more nutritious. Fun at Monument Valley. On the San Juan River: While getting a flat tire… Read More

Kia ora from New Zealand!

Hey everyone! As was highlighted in previous blog posts, our journey in Fiji has come to an end and we have now begun our New Zealand adventure! After a brief  two day stay in Auckland, we were relocated to the Kotare Trust Marae in Wellsford. A Marae is a place for Maori families to share their culture and heritage amongst themselves and visitors who are interested. We were greeted warmly… Read More

Baking Extravaganza!

Hey there adoring fans, After gorging ourselves the past week on Coconut cookies, Galak (aka – greatest vanilla butter cookie sandwiches ever), and every other pre-packaged treat we could find, a gross dull stomach ache began to seep into the group. Why can’t we avoid these gelatenous treats, these potato chips, these short-sighted hunger solutions? Eventually, some group members said “Enough,” and a running bet began to see who can… Read More

Time Traveller’s Log, Earthdate 20131004: Last Day in Baños

Day: October 4th, 2013 Location: The city of Baños, Tungurahua, Ecuador Activities: Canyoneering and saying goodbye Hello friends and family, and welcome to the first of several time traveller’s logs! We will be experiencing the past lives of us Carpe Students, but don’t worry, our presence won’t interfere with the space time continuum. First thing we do today is go to an adventure clinic, where we suit up for our… Read More

Vatuse’s Round of Applause

Part of me is wishing I could say Bula to all of you right now, but I am in New Zealand, yet to learn the Maori word for hello. So, try to imagine a Kiwi accent on my Hello! It has been full of twists and turns here for the Walkabout group, but now we have wind back in our sails and are diving fully into this ocean of an… Read More